Internet in Asia research group
As part of the Monash Asia Institute's Research Unit on Cultures and Technologies in Asia (RUCTA), the Japanese Studies Centre Internet in Asia Research Group has been conducting and facilitating academic research and discussion on the impact, influences, challenges and uses of the internet in Asia.
The internet is becoming the dominant and preferred method of communication in Asia. This poses new and unforeseen threats and opportunities throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The advent of internet cafes and email has greatly enabled the integration of global communication. At the same time, the emerging cyber culture of the internet challenges the very notions of sovereignty, civil society, family structure and conventional politics in China, India, Japan and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
There is extensive debate in Asia about the role of the internet, who should and can control it, and its cultural, political and economic impact. In the PRC, government seeks to control the internet and related e-mail services to prevent public access to sensitive cultural and political information in order to prevent civil society from developing challenges to the one party state. Despite this, internet cafes are booming - even in relatively remote parts such as southern Yunnan. In Japan, a much more politically open society, the Internet cafe seems to have acquired a life of its own. It is a cyber version of the conventional cafeÇ providing a site where (especially) young people can experience not so much social interaction, as private time away from family and work. In India, the internet cafes are fast replacing the convention of discussing politics and reading aloud from newspapers in urban and rural coffee shops. The political context of the internet differs throughout the Asia-Pacific region, but certain concerns are common to all the cultures in the region. Will the internet create a social space which threatens the traditional family? Will it create political cultures that undermine conventional politics? Will the internet be the cultural equivalent of MacDonald's and become the purveyor of American values? Or will the internet in Asia create local cultural content, strengthen regional diversity and enhance political maturity?
By drawing on Australian and international joint-research and cross-institutional collaboration, the Japanese Studies Centre Internet in Asia Research Group seeks to examine the core issues that underpin the nature of the internet: authorship, control, access and transmission of information.
Three half-day symposia have been held, as well as a panel in the Cultural Flows in a Globalizing Asia conference.
2003 programme
16 May
Associate Professor Jim BreenSchool of Computer & Software Engineering, Monash University
Japan: observations on language usage
Professor
Masami Hiraishi, Visiting Researcher
Kokushikan
University, Japan
Japanese experience to
launch E-government & local government
Associate Professor John Langer
Department of Communication, Language & Cultural Studies,
Victoria University
On-line at home: computer
mediated communication in domestic Bangkok
2002 programme
16 October
Ms
Jan Miller
School of Computer &
Software Engineering, Monash University
Technology and education reform in computer science in Thailand
This presentation is based on information gathered by interview with Thai university academics from 1999 to 2001 as part of a three-year project titled the Thailand-Australia Science and Engineering Assistance Project (TASEAP). The project goal was to employ equipment and technology, being supplied by the World Bank, to improve undergraduate teaching and research in public universities in Thailand. In the period of observation improvements in teaching and learning techniques, and an increase in the use of the internet, communications networks, video conferencing, computer-aided instruction, and software packages were observed. This presentation will define the project, the differences in the use of technology before and after the project, the workshops and individual visits to promote the change, and the continuing research to evaluate the current use of the technology and the effect of the project one to two years after its completion.
Ms Raja Yasmin, Masters CandidateSchool of Information Management & Systems, Monash University
Internet Diffusion and E-business opportunities amongst Malaysian travel agencies
The travel and tourism industry has been greatly affected by the rapid growth of the Internet and e-business technology. It was seen as the first area likely to do business electronically and was predicted to become a highly successful online business area. The emergence of e-business has greatly affected the way travel organizations perform their businesses particularly in disseminating their tourism products in the marketplace. As well as being able to provide abundant free information to customers, the technology is able to provide almost all types of services that conventional travel agencies offer, and also unique services that they could never offer.
This paper reports an investigation into the adoption of the Internet amongst Malaysian travel agencies as a means of exploring the likely future potential growth of e-business within the industry. Jarvenpaa and Ives' model was applied in this study to identify the elements that contribute to the diffusion of the Internet in Malaysian travel agencies. The findings were compared with other previous studies using similar models. Cultural issues were found to be particularly important in explaining the adoption rate of the Internet in Malaysian travel agencies.
16 August
Professor Marika ViczianyDirector - Monash Asia Institute, Monash University
The internet in India and entitlements
Associate Professor Jim Breen , Monash University
Use of English and vernacular languages
in the WWW
in Japan
Dr Tony
Wilson, School of Political & Social Inquiry,
Monash University
Reception of the internet
in Malaysia
Associate
Professor Alison Tokita, School of Languages, Cultures
& Linguistics; Director - Japanese Studies Centre, Monash
University
The Internet café and comic
culture in Japan